This past Saturday I purchased a SJ on CL for $150. It was purchased 3 years ago from ESI by a coffee shop (1997 Vintage from the serial number) and has obviously had some hard use. Burrs were replaced in 3/09 but are now so dull I could not take anything off my fingernail with them. I ordered replacements, but am still concerned as after re-assembly I couldn't pull a shot longer than 15 seconds on my Vetrano. I re-aligned the burrs after searching here a couple times and the results are the same. New burrs are on the way, but was wondering if there is anything else I should try.

And some pictures of the refurb.

As purchased:


Wee bit caked with 13 year old coffee:


Sitting next to the Vetrano and my parents Rocky (gave them my Macap M4 since I am upgrading, Rocky is temporary until I get the SJ grinding well):

Wives comment was that's a teeny container (hopper). She thought I was going to use it at that point.

More nasties:





Let's get rid of that disgusting paint:


3M Paint wheel, wire brush, 60,160,200,320,400,600, and Tripoli compound (and 3 hours) later:




With the Vetrano:

Electrical tape mod (used red so I can see it more easily) and Elvinator (done out of poly cutting board) are installed as well.

I didn't polish or clean the doser up because I ran out of time and wanted to get it done. I also plan to do a doserless modification to it later on and perhaps do some sort of built in timer as well. We'll see when I get a free moment. Spent countless hours searching for timer options, but I really want something that is built in.

Oh and the grinder will get a smaller "acrylic" hopper and be moved to the other side of the Vetrano. While the doser is on I am grinding by dose (even if its not the best), so there is no need for it yet. Once removed though I'll get some pressure on the beans.

Thanks for a great forum that has allowed me to really search and have some fun putting things together.

Just installed new burrs and what a difference. No longer am I running interference on the burrs.

Question though: When adjusting the burrs they seem to touch only at one point. I carefully leveled (equally tightened and cleaned) the mounting of the burrs. Is there any other adjustment to true up the burrs? Is this normal? It isn't extreme, but I am a bit of a perfectionist.

Hey! That now looks like my Project MDX Bling! Use some white rouge to get it even shinier... use a BIG wheel and a powerful motor to keep the heat up from the friction, or you'll get hazing.

I don't know if the burrs touching at only one point matters. My MDX does that also, and looking in the grind chamber from the exit when it happens doesn't really show anything that's noticeable. Mine makes contact about 1/3 to half the way around, so it cannot be off too much. If yours doesn't rub for more than 1/3 of the distance, then I'd probably worry that it was off too much.

Thanks for the tips, I used what I had and mostly that was only a few hours.

Wife had other things on the honey-do list, but considering it looked like crap I didn't want to put it on the counter. When I yank the doser I'll be sure to clean it up. My wheel is a bit worn and small, but I have plenty of motor. Had no idea what caused the haze though.

Still some scratches in it that perhaps need more sanding Yours is beautiful btw, I look forward to hearing how your alleviate your static difficulties and am eager to hear what you used for a "funnel".

My static issues are not nearly as bad as they were, but, they still exist. Some days they are worse than others, and I don't think it's a humidity issue since my humidity is pretty tightly controlled in the house.

The funnel is a Porter Cable gravity feed paint hopper. It's all stainless steel. $15. Model PTA30. Next time I go to the welding shop, I'll pick up a smaller tungten rod and thinner filler rods and make something that has a better shape. Or, if I find a cheap lathe at some point, I'll make a wood mold and spin some thin stainless or aluminum over it.

The big problem is getting the coffee all the way out of the grind chamber. I know what the ideal fix is, but it's a major modification that would require some machining of the body, and good amount of fab work for the chute. There are some "fins" on the bottom of the burr carrier, and the gap between them and the body is fairly large. I'm going to try using some food grade silicone adhesive and extend them with a strip of flexible silicone (like from a silicone squeegee). I won't have it actually make contact with the body, but I will cut it close. This should increase the air turbulence/flow in there and throw it out with more force.

As far as your scratches go... You'll have to go back to one grit above the one that caused them and do it all over. Or better yet, go with an aggressive cutting compound and a jute wheel to get them out, then to the tripoli compound on a cloth wheel, and white rouge on a felt wheel. I had a lot of problems keeping it hot with the 4" felt wheel I had, and the compound would haze on the metal and was really difficult to remove. Get a larger diameter wheel to keep the speed/heat up. Also make sure you clean the crap from your wheels regularly so they don't clog up. I put a hacksaw blade in the vice and ran the wheel along the toothed edge to clean it and comb it out.

The chute is a heck of a good grind collector. I've been using my finger after each grind to clean it into the doser, but something more thorough would be way better.

I am afraid that the scratches are from the wire brush which at the time seemed really logical. I didn't really notice them until I got up to 200 though, so hopefully they aren't as deep as they potentially may be. The only wheel I have is setup for Tripoli so that is all that it received, only a 3" as well which made negotiating some of the corners difficult. You've given me the inspiration to take it a step further instead of painting it though, just going to have a wait a few weeks as spring has my yard needing some love.

If you upgrade your funnel and want to sell the one you have, I'd be interested. I am in the W burbs.

It's unlikely the funnel I have will fit on yours. It has holes drilled for mounting, and a hole cut to allow grinds to exit the grind chamber. I doubt they are in the right spot.

I picked up my funnel at Seven Corners Hardware in St. Paul. It's $15. I cut the threaded end off of it, and used a 7/8" stepped drill bit on the drill press to get a perfect hole in the end of it. Then I used a dial caliper to figure out where the mounting holes and cutout needed to be. I cut out the hole with a dremel.

If for some reason you want a taller one, Harbor Freight has one exactly the same for about the same price, but it's 2" taller. If I end up building one, I'm going to use a stainless water bottle and cut the ends off so it's a tube. Then cut long skinny triangles up the side so I'm left with long pointy "fingers," and then push them together and weld them. It should look awesome.

One thing I forgot to mention, if you're going to redo the polishing on it, you should call some metal polishers around town. I called some to figure out how to get rid of my haze, and most of them said they would have done the whole thing for $50. That's about the same amount of money I spend on polishing wheels, compounds, and flap wheels.

If I ever do this again, I'm taking it apart and bringing the parts I want polished to someone with the right equipment.

My MDX works awesome, but if I find a cheap used SJ, I'll probably snag it, polish and mod it, and then sell my MDX. I don't think it's going to work any better than my MDX, as there is a comparison somewhere where someone measured the grind size distribution and found that the MDX produced a virtually identical grind. But, I like the look of the Mazzer more, and it's more "standard."

Thanks again for the insight. I didn't actually spend anything as I pretty much had it all lying around. Excluding some extra sandpaper as I was low on 400, but other than that it was from the garage. $50 for all that work would have been worth it though. Live and learn.

Nice work, was going to powder coat mine but I can get over how good it looks polished. BTW, if you do some searching you can get a Doser-less funnel kit for the SJ for about $150, if I find it in my reading again I will post info.